At the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, when Groot is a twig in a pot and at the start of the second film when the Guardians are fighting that Interdimensional monster, we see Groot dancing, but when Drax looks at him, Groot freezes still until Drax is no longer looking at him.

But why is this? I suspect it might be something like how Drax's species doesn't understand metaphors because it's not that Drax doesn't know that Little Groot is alive.

2 Answers
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“There was actually a scene that we cut from the movie where big Groot
was dancing to 'Livin’ Thing' by ELO,” said Gunn. “And it wasn’t such
an elaborate dance. It was more that he was just moving up and down
like this, and Drax was dismissive and gave him this look like he was
a loser when he did that.”

Gunn added, “Dancing is ludicrous to Drax. I don’t think he
understands it. If Drax owned a town, if he was a mayor, the first law
would be no dancing. But yeah, so at the end of the movie, little baby
Groot didn’t want to get caught dancing, because he would kill him.”

Drax: Everyone in the village flailed about, dancing. Except one woman. My Ovette. I knew immediately she was the one for me. The most
melodic song in the world could be playing. She wouldn’t even tap her
foot. Wouldn’t move a muscle. One might assume she was dead.